Chance to learn

Published 6:00 am Sunday, January 28, 2018

Westgate High School head basketball coach Oliver Winston firmly believes that a team, and a coach, can learn just as much from a win as from a loss.

The Tigers, second in the Class 4A power points heading into the weekend, can take away a valuable lesson from a tougher-than-expected 72-69 win over Rayne Friday night at the Westgate Coliseum. First and foremost is that the team still has a lot to work on even after bashing then-top rated Carencro the previous Saturday night.

“We’re fortunate to have more points than them at the end, but it doesn’t mean we worked as hard as we should have,” Winston said following Friday’s win. “But I can learn as much from a win as I can learn from a loss. At the end of the day, we won, and that’s what the objective is this time of year.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, a lot of film to watch, a lot of corrections to make.”

But with the help of a nice alumni group supporting the team, and a halftime letterman’s jacket presentation to fall sports participants, Westgate was able to hold on for the win.

“I’m really excited so many alumni came back and were so vocal,” Winston said. “That really helped us. I thought it was awesome to see that alumni group really support us, so we’re really excited about that.”

Rayne coach Darrell Caesar, familiar with the Tigers as the former Jeanerette coach, said his team missed an opportunity to improve upon their position for the postseason with a win over a highly-ranked squad.

“We should’ve pulled it off,” Caesar said. “Any time you’ve got the 30th seed against the No. 2 ranked seed in the state and you’ve got an opportunity to win the game, you’ve got to make it count.”

The Tigers (15-4 overall) used a 10-0 run midway through the second quarter to build a double-digit lead by halftime, going up 40-28 at intermission.

The lead was still at 12 with just over six minutes to go in the third quarter, but Rayne went on a 13-4 run to pull to within 2 points at 48-46 with 2:55 left in the period, highlighted by Tony Cormier’s 4-point play at the 3:20 mark.

Westgate couldn’t shake the Wolves after that, leading by no more than 4 points the rest of the way, including 55-51 at the end of the third quarter and 60-56 with 6:22 to go on a 3-pointer by Tyron Chevalier.

But Jerome Handy answered with his own 3-pointer 21 seconds later to again trim the Westgate lead to a single point, and a 3-point basket by Braylin Bonnom with 3:57 to go pulled RHS even at 62-apiece. That basket followed a 1-for-2 free throw effort by the Tigers, who struggled all night from the line, including an 8-for-18 (44 percent) fourth quarter and a 13-for-27 (48 percent) overall showing.

“We missed tons of layups, right-at-the-rim shots, and that becomes contagious,” Winston said. “When a couple of free throws don’t go in, the next thing you know, a couple of more don’t go in, a couple of more don’t go in. And we were kind of almost relying on one person to do all the scoring, and that’s not what we are. That’s not what we’ve been all year.”

Those missed free throws helped keep Rayne in the game. The Tigers led by as many as 3 on four more occasions, and Rayne got to within a point once, then tied it up at 69-69 with 44 seconds left on a shot by Cormier.

A free throw by Chevalier made it a 70-69 Westgate lead, and Keith Lopez got a big block on the other end with Jansen Mayea recovering the ball for the Tigers with 6.5 seconds to go. Chevalier then hit two free throws with 3.4 seconds left after Mayea’s long inbound pass to Deondre Spencer, and Mayea and Spencer combined for a steal with a second remaining to seal the win.

“At the end of the game we didn’t execute,” Caesar said. “We kind of got rattled. The kids got rattled a little bit and we let it slip out of our hands.”

Chevalier led the Tigers with 23 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Keyvie Eddie had 17 points with three baskets from beyond the arc and Keydrain Calligan added 12 points for WHS.

Cormier had a team-high 19 points for the Wolves, including three 3-pointers. Handy also had three 3-point baskets and finished with 18 points, and Leon Williams had 15 points.

“They did a good job,” Winston said. “Commend them. Their kids played hard. We had told our kids even before we got out there that every game people are going to give us their best shot. Rayne definitely did. They gave it their best shot.”

Rayne took an 18-17 lead after a first quarter of runs by each squad — 9-0 by Westgate, followed by 9-0 by Rayne, then 7-0 by Westgate and 7-0 by Rayne to close out the period.

That fast-paced first quarter turned into a sloppy second period with a combined half-dozen unforced turnovers  in the first three minutes of the quarter. Spencer broke the scoring ice with a 3-point play on a bullet pass from Eddie that resulted in a basket and free throw with 5:49 left, but Jamarcus Richard countered with a 3-point basket 15 seconds later. A layup by Ron Madison started Westgate’s 10-0 run to help build the double-digit halftime lead.

Because of a change in format for District 4-4A this year, Friday’s game did not count in the district standings. 

District teams play each other twice with only one counting in district, Caesar said. A later game at Rayne will count in district.

“We’re going to keep fighting,” Caesar said. “We’re going to keep working hard. We’re going to get one (big win). We need a win so we can get (an improvement) from 30. But the good thing about this is our kids are starting to believe we can compete in this district, one of the toughest in the state.”

Westgate is quickly back in the swing of things Monday at Northside.

“People say you learn more from a loss than you do from a win. I’ve never believed that,” Winston said. “I believe you can learn as much from a win as you can from a loss, and in this situation, we’ve got a lot that we have to learn, a lot we have to work on, a lot we have to practice, and we’ve got a quick turnaround. We play Northside as a top 10/12 team. There is no rest for the weary. We have to regroup and refocus and go to work.”